All Epilogue 18 - Lady Junko
"Junko, would you be so kind as to come with me?" Osamu asked politely. The young woman looked up from what she was doing. Keying into his formal bearing, she reciprocated, "Of course." Standing and folding her hands in front of her, she asked, "Where are we going?" "With your assistance, Hell," he replied. "I doubt it will be long now before we return permanently, and there are a few things that require our attention before that happens." "Lucca isn't doing well?" she asked, not impolitely. Osamu frowned almost imperceptibly, replying, "All the more reason to prepare now." "As you wish," she said. Conducting the spell, she transported the pair of them to the outer plane. Snow swirled around the mountain they stood on, the sky dark and the wind harsh. Osamu looked around critically, as though looking for something. Junko watched him, questions plain on her face, but good manners holding her tongue. “Come this way,” he said, unfurling his wings and taking flight, moving higher up the mountainside. Junko shifted her appearance to give her feathery wings of her own, and she flew after Osamu. He alighted on a plateau not too far from the top, looking out over the view the vantage afforded. Junko landed behind him, finally asking, “What are we doing here?” He looked out for another moment before turning to her, smiling slightly, “Do you know what this is?” “Uhm...a mountain?” She looked around, “...An empty mountain.” “Yes, I suppose that’s my fault…” he muttered, then amended, “This is my land. All of this belongs to me, and if we are to move here, then it is high time I did something with it.” Junko looked between the landscape and her lord as he continued, “I am in a much better place now than before, and it is time that I take command of what is mine. But to do that, I need to establish the province. I need to decide what shape it will take, the direction it will move towards, and from there it will build itself, populate itself with figments, and be ready for others to inhabit it, rather than existing as a waste.” He turned towards her, “And so, I need your help.” This confused her, so with a gentle expression, he explained, “This action will build my country, and my castle. It will undoubtedly be like that which we are familiar with. But a house can’t be built by a lord alone.” A vague smile played at his mouth as he said, “I have no wife to speak of, and even if I did, Lucca is no lady. Since you are my eldest daughter, the daughter who will live here with me, I would like your assistance, as lady of the house, with ensuring it is both made and kept proper.” She blinked at him, both shocked and blushing. “I’m...I’m not…” Smiling somewhat broader, he said, “You are a beautiful, talented woman, and I don’t doubt for a moment you lack the skills needed to run a house. I understand if you would rather do something else, but, if you’d like, the position is yours. There is no one else who could take your place.” Still looking a bit shocked, she coughed slightly and bowed her head, voice caught with emotion as she mumbled, “You honour me, Lord Osamu.” “I’m glad,” he replied. “I don’t know what I’d do without your help. You know my tastes: if left to my personal devices, I’m sure I’d make the whole building into a single square room, with one piece of furniture. If anything needed a lady’s touch, I’m certain it would be this.” He held out his hands to her. After looking at them for a brief moment, she took his hands. “What do we do?” Osamu knelt down, taking Junko with him. “Close your eyes, and just think. Think about what our home will be, what it will look like, what purpose it will serve. Fine details, or sweeping perceptions. Think what you will, and I will make it so.” She nodded, and let her mind wander on the topic. When she opened her eyes, they were no longer in the snow. Instead, they were in a throne room, styled in a Yeto fashion, but made of stone similar to hobgoblin buildings. A sweeping open balcony afforded the same view as before, looking out over the mountains. They were still barren, but perhaps not for long. Junko stood up and looked around with a look of mild wonder, as Osamu did the same, watching her with his calm, mute smile. “It’s...it’s like I know the whole place, but I’ve never seen it…” she said quietly, more to herself than anyone else. “It’s like it goes on forever, but I can count every room, every thing in every room...it’s like I’ve never been here, but it’s always been home…” “It’s your home,” Osamu told her, drawing her gaze back. “I rule from here, but it is your house, to run as you see fit.” She spoke with emotion, near tears, “I...I was supposed to be a servant.” “You are my daughter, a lady, a princess. You are my child, no different than Virgil, and you are a servant to no one.” She wiped at her eye before turning and bowing to him, “You are my lord, and you have always honoured me far beyond what I should expect; I know that. I will keep your house so all who come here will bear their respect, and I will bring honour to you.” “I know you will,” he said, bringing his hand to her cheek and lifting it up. He still smiled, “You shouldn’t hide your pretty face.” She wiped her eye again, and dispelled the shift she had held on her, revealing her true form that she kept almost permanently hidden. When she did, she looked different than she had ever looked before, and the knowledge of this was much like the house: simultaneously new, and yet something that she had known all along. She was still pale, with straight, silvery-blonde hair that ran down to her ankles, wearing a pastel kimono. Her moth-like wings of white and silver were folded behind her, and the silvery antennae that were as soft as her hair lay back along her head. However, where before she had looked barely older than twelve, a fact that infuriated and tormented her, she now looked to be in the prime of her youth, a beautiful woman in her early twenties. Osamu said, “Everyone, including you, knows that you are no child, but a lady.” She looked at her hands with a muted amazement before turning back to him and nodding. He held out his hands again, “We should be returning. We’ve been gone nearly two weeks, according to Lucca and Mako. We will have eternity to get settled.” Junko nodded and began to cast the spell that would transport them back to Materia. As they returned to the plane, teleporting back to their house and donning their human guises once more, Osamu grinned slightly and said, “I couldn’t help but notice you appear to have put a dance club in the basement.” She tried and failed to contain a cheeky snicker. Category:Advent of the All